The Nature and Benefit of Blogging

A blog that I follow suggested today that seminary students be required to blog every day. The thinking was that it would aid in helping the students codify and process the information they are learning.

While it makes a lot of sense, I think it is a bad idea. A big part of the thinking process, for me, at least, is reflection. For example, I saw a sign outside a church the other day that was quite thought provoking. At the time, I thought, "This is huge. I should blog about this." By the time I got home, however, I had thought through the statement from the sign about 10 different ways. The result was that I didn't have anything firm that I could say about it. So I didn't say anything.

I suppose the key here is how one views blogging. Maybe I'm a bit old fashioned, but I think if you write something down, it should be worth the time it takes to read it (which is a matter of opinion, of course). Thus, if you form an opinion in writing, you are at least somewhat bound to it. Many, however, view blogging as simply firing off a moment's thoughts, Twitter-style, and whatever statement you might make can be reversed or negated the next moment.

So what do you think? Should we be carefully crafting our thoughts and using a blog to benefit the world with our reasoned, calculated responses? Or should we be reacting moment by moment to the world and using our blog as a catalog of emotional responses? I think both have merits and disadvantages...